The conventional camera system is always used in a combination of a housing, or unit including a signal processor (hereinafter, referred to as a chrominance/luminance signal generator unit) and another housing, or unit including an image pickup device (hereinafter, referred to as a camera head unit) as described in "CCD Micro-Miniature Color Camera", IEEE Trans., CE-33,2, p. 85 (1987).
In the prior art, since the camera head unit and the chrominance/luminance signal generator unit can be placed away from to each other through an extended cable, even when the chrominance/luminance signal generator unit is incorporated in a personal computer, the camera head unit can be used out of the personal computer since it is not fixed to the computer. Therefore, the camera head can be directed at any angle. However, when a plurality of cameras are used to supply video data to the personal computer or the like in a time sharing manner, it is necessary to incorporate in the personal computer the chrominance/luminance signal generators of which the number is the same as that of the camera head units, thus increasing the cost. The conventional camera system does not consider this aspect.